reading is a private act, private even from the person who wrote the book. Once the novel is out there, the author is beside the point. The reader and the book have their own relationship now, and should be left alone to work things out for themselves.

My novels are very much the same, as I think many people's novels are.

He believed that life, true life, was something that was stored in music. True life was kept safe in the lines of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin while you went out in the world and met the obligations required of you. Certainly he knew (though did not completely understand) that opera wasn't for everyone, but for everyone he hoped there was something. The records he cherished, the rare opportunities to see a live performance, those were the marks by which he gauged his ability to love.

I don't want to stand with somebody's praise.

The light was cut to lace by the trees that had grown so thick with leaves in the last few months.

I don't really do anything with the Internet except check my email. I have a much higher opinion of humanity because of that.

It's easier to love a woman when you can't understand a word she's saying.